"#2 Hit Single"

The flight of guitars that steer Pile's "#2 Hit Single" come on like a winnebago hitting 10 speed bumps at 90 miles per hour. Off the rising noise rock band's upcoming LP You're Better Than This, "#2" is the abrasive descendent of "Number One Hit Single", a song from Pile's 2010 debut Magic Isn't Real. Five years and 5,000 beers since then, the four-man band from Boston's thriving underground scene sounds savage and sincere as ever. "#2" sets an eerie tone with minor chord inversions punctuated by the backbone of Pile's rhythm players, guitarist Matt Becker, bassist Matt Connery and drummer Kris Kuss.

Frontman and lead guitarist Rick Maguire drinks from the same self-denigrating glass as Parquet Courts' Andrew Savage. "My face is brushed with the devil's fruit/ And I don't have to think about tomorrow again," he wails right before the song's climax-finish. Pile walks the line of hard and soft playing, experimental twists and straight up melody. Maguire, the primary songwriter, affects the wry aggression of many early-'90s Touch & Go bands (think the Jesus Lizard, Polvo), but Pile's influences run deeper. The structured chaos of "#2", and the band’s flair for overtones, evoke noise pioneer (and fellow one-time Bostonian) Glenn Branca. "#2" has the skeletal tone of some Theoretical Girls/the Static tracks, making it clear that the raucous noise-heads of Pile inherited Branca's earth in more ways than one.